The Acupuncture Relief Project is a free community acupuncture
clinic that travels to countries that have been impacted by poverty,
conflict or disaster. In 2008 our 6 week project is located in
Kathmandu, Nepal.
Nepal remains one of the poorest countries in the world and has been plagued with political unrest and military conflict for the past decade. Our project will give our practitioners an opportunity to gain valuable field experience while making a positive impact on the local community.
Namo Buddha Volunteer Acupuncture Clinic
Pictures from the Namo Buddha Volunteer Acupuncture Clinic The beauty of Nepal is belied by the serious diseases of the patients at the hospital.
I volunteered for 3 weeks at Namo Buddha monastery in January of 2008 about 2 hours from Kathmandu. I collected donations to fund the supplies and donations to make a new hospital there. I raised over $2000 for supplies and money towards their new and much larger clinic. Last year it was a one room clinic that often served over 100 patients/day.
There is one 'medical monk' who runs it named Jamyang Dorje and he has about 10-15 helpers (younger monks) that work there with him to dispense medications, etc. Every practitioner that comes to the monastery teaches Janmyang and his helpers how to administer care within their field.
I taught Jamyang about the Foundations of Acupuncture and how to find acupuncture points, and I also taught him and his helpers some of the main modalities of acupuncture (moxa, cupping, etc). What lovely and respectful students they were! Jamnyang had to do a lot of translating though.
When I wasn't teaching, I was practicing at the clinic which was incredibly interesting. I ended up treating many disorders that one would never treat in N. America (things we would refer for). For example: large tumors, blood poisoning, mid-seizures. So that was quite a learning experience to see how effective it can be for these things. It brought the swelling of a throat tumour down a bit so that the patient could breathe (her airway was almost completely blocked - she was chosen by a group of donators for surgery also), the blood poisoning was helped somewhat while we transeferred a little boy to hospital (took over 4 hours), and the seizure was stopped in about 30-45 minutes (whereas her seizures normally last an entire day).
I found that most of the ailments that people came for were respiratory issues, digestive issues, and joint pains. The respiratory was mostly due to the fact that the Nepalese gov't hiked up oil prices so high that most of the population had to return to wood fires in their home for cooking. The smoke was destroying their breathing. And the digestive I believe was due to poor water quality. And the joint pains mostly due to the fact that most villagers are too poor to buy shoes! So they walk barefoot, even in the middle of winter when it is freezing outside. That was my take.
My opinion is to bring a tonne of moxa, and also donate money to a charity that may be responsible for clean water, clean clothes (shoes and socks!), and donating oil. Or working on the infrastructure. Just my observations.
Ok, I hope this helps, if you need any more information, please do not hesitate to ask!
My advice for those traveling with donations - please make sure that you have a complete list of your acupuncture supplies handy for when you reach Kathmandu. They will want to charge quite a hefty duty to bring them in.
Sincerely,
Gillian Marsollier M.TCM, R.Ac, C.I.
Program Director - Acupuncture
CompuCollege Acupuncture Program, Halifax, Canada
Pillars of Health, a multi-disciplinary integrative wellness clinic located in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia